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Russell Crowe and Maria Bello unite for Emergency Sex

Story by Jack Foley

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RUSSELL Crowe has teamed up with actress Maria Bello and Oscar-winning screenwriter Simon Beaufoy for a new HBO series.

Emergency Sex will focus on the real-life and larger-than-life exploits of a group of expatriate non-government organization workers who find their sanity tested in the face of atrocities, loneliness and primal desires in Cambodia during the ’90s, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Bello will star as one of the workers, Beaufoy is penning the script and Crowe is serving as executive producer along with his leading lady and writer.

The series is inspired by the book Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures: A True Story From Hell on Earth by Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait and Andrew Thomson, which was – in turn – inspired by their own experiences as members of a UN peace-keeping mission.

Crowe was so taken with the book that he purchased the rights to it with a view to delivering a screen adaptation.

Emergency Sex will mark the series debut for Beaufoy, who is previously best known for his cinema screenplays. He penned the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire for Danny Boyle and has since reunited with Boyle for his next movie, 127 Hours, which is due to commence filming soon.

Bello, however, has a long-standing relationship with HBO, having developed another series project for the cable network in 2008.

She is currently at the Sundance Film Festival to promote her new film, The Company Men.